


Flying Cars, Mistreated Hearts and an Irish Wedding

by lenapinewoods



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2020-03-07 12:46:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18873478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lenapinewoods/pseuds/lenapinewoods
Summary: This story involves new flatmates, a wedding, a flying car, someone being hungover, someone getting car sick, misunderstandings, unexpected confessions and a lot of Irish countryside.





	Flying Cars, Mistreated Hearts and an Irish Wedding

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GingerTodgers](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GingerTodgers/gifts).



> Hi gingertodgers! I got inspired by your prompt about two characters trying to define their relationship during a roadtrip. I had never written Cho or Tonks before so that was a fun challenge and I hope I did good job with them. I had so much fun writing this piece – I tried to take your wishes into account as well as I could and I really hope you like it!
> 
> Also, I’m so thankful to my beta K for all the ideas, support and help! Thank you! <3

Cho Chang took a sip of her morning tea and looked out of the kitchen window. It was sunny outside here in the outskirts of London, but the weather could be different in Northern Ireland. She hoped it wouldn’t rain; it would ruin Seamus and Hannah’s outside wedding ceremony. They couldn’t even use magic to protect themselves, because Seamus’ muggle relatives would be there and the wedding invite specifically said, “Please refrain from using magic during the whole event”. This stressed Cho out a little, even though Hannah and Seamus had sent them a separate note saying, “Just make sure no one notices.” Cho turned her eyes to the wedding invite that was pinned on the door of their muggle fridge, the one that Hermione had insisted on getting when they became flat mates a year ago. In a black-and-white photograph Seamus picked Hannah up and spun her around and they both laughed and kissed at each other. They probably sent a different kind of invite to Seamus’ muggle relatives, one where the people portrayed stayed still, Cho thought, and took a bite of her toast.

There was a creak in the hallway and Cho turned to look as the door of Hermione’s room slowly opened.

“Well it's about time you woke up,” Cho said, finishing up her tea. “I’m already done with breakfast and I’m going to take a shower now. You should hurry up too, we have to leave in a–” she paused mid-sentence, because the woman who came out of Hermione’s room wasn’t Hermione.

It was Lavender Brown.

…

Hermione Granger knew she had drunk too much before she even opened her eyes, but it took a few more seconds for everything else to come back from last night. When she remembered, she didn’t want to open her eyes anymore. She just wanted to lie in her bed with her hangover and her shame and never face another person again. But then she heard the door open and Cho say something and then silence when Cho understood what was going on. Hermione opened her eyes and cringed. Then she heard Lavender’s bright voice say, “Good morning, Cho! Such a lovely morning! I’m going to fix myself some breakfast, I’m starving. And you’re right, we really have to hurry if we want to make it there in time. Hermione said we still have to Floo to Liverpool to get the car and that can take some time.”

The door closed.

Hermione gave out a frustrated sigh. Why hadn’t Lavender apparated into her own room? Of course she wouldn’t have thought of that. Or maybe she just didn’t care. Lavender was probably the kind of person who thought sexual affairs and relationships weren’t private things. Despite that, she should have thought about Hermione’s feelings. Hermione preferred to keep her things private. It was bad enough that she had gotten horribly drunk last night, acted like a fool and ended up having sex with Lavender, who had only moved in with them a week ago, was the ex of her ex and was, well, _Lavender Brown_ , – but now Cho knew too. Now Hermione couldn’t just pretend that nothing had ever happened or just sort things out privately with Lavender. If there was something that needed to be sorted. She wasn’t sure. Hermione sighed again. She had to wait for Lavender to finish breakfast before leaving her room. She wasn’t ready to face her just yet.

…

There was a knock on the front door when Cho was finishing her makeup. She carefully applied one last layer of lipstick and glanced at herself in the mirror before getting the door. Nymphadora Tonks was standing on the porch, her hair short and purple, her shoulders sharp underneath a black muggle suit jacket. Cho remembered Hermione mentioning that Tonks was coming with them, but she had forgot about it – or maybe she had tried to not think about it. Hermione and Tonks worked in the same department at the Ministry – Tonks in the Auror Office, Hermione in the Wizengamot Administrative Services – and they often had lunch together at work. Cho hadn’t seen Tonks since the Christmas party she and Hermione had thrown last December. She and Tonks had talked all night and Cho had really thought there was something going on between them. But then Tonks had made it clear she wasn’t interested – she had implied that Cho had no sense of humour and she had started to talk about another woman before leaving off to look for her. Cho had ended up making out with Roger Davies, which had been a mistake, but Roger had been there and she had been drunk and in need of attention.

However, that had happened months ago – there was no reason she and Tonks couldn’t be friends, was there? And if Cho was completely honest with herself, a part of her wanted to show Tonks what she had missed, rejecting her. Cho gave Tonks another look. Tonks looked dashing in the suit and Cho felt her lips curve into a smile as she said, “Hi, please come in.”

“Thanks,” Tonks said, answering the smile, as she entered the house. “Where’s Hermione?”

“Hiding in the shower, I think.”

“From what?”

“Lavender.”

Tonks laughed. “Is she already getting in her way? She has lived here for what, a week now?”

“More like getting in her pants,” Cho said, before she could stop herself.

“No! _Really_?” Tonks looked at Cho, eyes wide with amuse and disbelief. 

Cho pressed a finger on her lips, smiling. “But you didn’t hear it from me.”

…

They were all standing in front of the fireplace, dressed up and ready to go. Cho held the Floo powder in her hands. Hermione felt slightly better after finishing a whole bottle of _Herbert’s Happy Hangover Potion_. It hadn’t erased all the aftereffects of a night of heavy drinking, but it had taken away the pounding headache and the insufferable nausea. A cold shower had helped too. Hermione touched the bush of her hair absentmindedly – it was still damp from the shower. She had planned to take a shower and wash her hair the night before, but obviously things hadn’t gone exactly as planned. She had also had high hopes of doing _something_ to her hair, like fixing an updo or something, but she hadn’t had the time and now her hair was the same as always, wild curls free on her shoulders. She swore to herself never to touch firewhisky again and especially never to mix it with mead. She glanced to her right at Lavender, who was searching for something in her purse. She was wearing a cute purple dress with a dramatic golden necklace and her long, dark hair was in beautiful braids. Through the haze of her memory, Hermione remembered how they had been sitting at the kitchen table last night and how she had leaned in, her eyes closed, reaching for her lips. She was brought back to present when Lavender raised her gaze at her. Hermione quickly turned her eyes away. She could swear she saw Lavender smiling from the corner of her eye.

“So, do you all remember the address?” Cho asked. Hermione wondered how Cho could always look so impeccable. The long, water-green gown she was wearing fit her slim body perfectly and she looked poised and sophisticated as always. The contrast felt even greater now as Hermione felt like an utter mess. 

“ _Flitwick & Higgins’ Flying Car Hire_, Liverpool,” Tonks replied to Cho. “Although, me being me, I’ll probably trip on the way out and end up at _Flatulence & Hiccups – Find the Cure Here_ regardless of what I say.”

They all snorted and noticing Cho, Hermione realized that she was doing her _Sexy Laugh_. She wasn’t sure if Cho was doing it on purpose, but that laugh was reserved to those Cho wanted to make an impression on – usually in a romantic sense. Hermione raised her eyebrows at Cho and gave her a knowing smile – Cho blushed slightly but raised her own eyebrows back at Hermione as if she was asking, “What do you mean? I haven’t done anything”.

Hermione gave out a sigh. They needed to leave now unless they wanted to be late. She cleared her throat and said, “Okay, so who wants to go first?”

…

Cho sat in the back seat next to Hermione who was staring out of the window, silent and with a grumpy look on her face. Hermione had wanted to drive, but Tonks hadn’t let her, Hermione still being clearly hungover. Tonks was driving and Lavender was in the front seat – she had insisted on sitting in the front because she claimed to get car sick very easily. Cho wondered what exactly had happened yesterday between Lavender and Hermione – it wasn’t like Hermione to spend the night with someone she wasn’t in a relationship with or even dating. Cho sort of wished she hadn’t gone to bed so early, she would’ve loved to see what went on between the two of them. Although she suspected that whatever had happened probably wouldn’t have happened, had she been there too.

“So, Lavender,” Tonks said, breaking the silence. “How’s your first week been, living with your new flatmates?” Cho couldn’t see Tonks’ face, sitting behind her, but she could hear the smirk in her voice.

“It’s been lovely, thanks for asking,” Lavender said. “The girls have been wonderful. Hermione especially has made me feel very… welcome,” she turned to look over her shoulder, smiling and raising her eyebrows at Hermione. Cho watched Hermione’s tan face turn grey from shock and embarrassment and tried to hold back a laugh. 

 

“Yes, everything’s gone really well!” Hermione added quickly with a high-pitched voice. “Lavender has really found her place… I mean, she has settled in our flat nicely.”

Cho looked away from Hermione, biting her lip so she wouldn’t laugh. The whole situation was just too good. They were hundreds of feet above ground, flying among clouds with a cheeky Lavender and a hangover Hermione who had just – apparently – had sex the night before. Turning to look at the clouds ahead she realized that Tonks was looking at her through the rear-view mirror. She felt her heart skip a beat, seeing Tonks’ eyes in the mirror, intense and amused. It surprised her a little; she had thought that the crush she had developed on Tonks at the Christmas party was long gone. Tonks grinned at her through the mirror and she answered the smile.

“How did you end up moving in with Cho and Hermione?” Tonks asked Lavender, now a bit more serious.

“After Romilda and I broke up–”

“Do you mean Romilda Vane?” that was Hermione, looking both incredulous and horrified.

“Yes.”

“ _Really? Her?_ ”

“You didn’t know that?” Cho asked, surprised.

“No I didn’t know it! If I had I would have never…”

“You were saying?” Lavender’s voice was icy now.

“Nothing,” Hermione said.

“Do you have a problem with the fact that I used to be in a relationship with Romilda?”

“Whom you are or aren’t in a relationship with is entirely your business,” Hermione said, brusquely.

Cho could almost feel the cold radiating from Lavender. Lavender took a deep breath before she continued, “As I was saying, after Romilda and I broke up I moved back in with my parents. But obviously that wasn’t a long-term solution and my childhood home isn’t very near my work – I work at Madam Malkin’s, I’m not sure if you knew that – so after a while it made sense to move closer to Diagon Alley. And I thought it would be fun to have flatmates – I don’t really like living alone.”

“And we had a room empty, because Padma got that high-class Arithmancy job in Germany–“

“She got the position of the Junior Arithmancer in the Berlin Numerology Research Center,” Hermione quickly specified. 

“–and Lavender heard we had a free room through Parvati.” Cho didn’t say how much convincing she had had to do before Hermione had agreed to Lavender being their new flatmate. Hermione was very picky with flatmates – Cho was actually surprised she had ever agreed to even live with her. But somehow they had all ended up living together a year ago – Padma, Hermione and her – three young witches in their mid-twenties at the start of their careers, looking for an affordable place to live in London. It had all gone surprisingly well and they had actually become friends during the last year. Cho was interested to see how Lavender would mix up the dynamics. That is, if she would continue to live with them after this whole incident with Hermione.

… 

The car ride was turning out to be even worse than Hermione had imagined. She felt like Lavender was deliberately making fun of her, and Tonks and Cho were pretending they didn’t know anything, but they were actually secretly smirking and glancing at each other through the rear-view mirror. Luckily Cho had been telling the others about her job at _The Prophet_ , so all attention wasn’t on her anymore. She hadn’t said anything after Lavender’s past relationship with Romilda Vane had come up – _What kind of a person could date that lunatic?_ – and she was planning on taking a nap, but then the she heard Tonks ask Cho something.

“So Cho, were you invited by Seamus or Hannah?” Tonks said. “I know Hermione and Lavender were in the same year at Hogwarts with both of them and in the same house with Seamus too, but what about you?”

Knowing Cho’s history with Seamus and Hannah Hermione turned to look at Cho, interested in how she would answer.

Two faint pink spots rose on Cho’s cheeks when she said, “Well, I, umm, I know both of them, because I used to date them.”

Both Tonks and Lavender turned to look at Cho so suddenly that Tonks failed to notice an air pocket and the whole car bounced up and down.

“Tonks, keep your eyes on the road!” Hermione said. “You’re endangering the air traffic safety with your chaotic driving!” This was exactly why she should’ve been the one behind the steering wheel, she thought. Hungover or not, she was still a better driver than Tonks.

“You’ve dated them _both_? I didn’t know that!” Lavender said to Cho, ignoring Hermione and clearly excited about the new gossip. “What, at the same time?”

“No! Not at the same time. I first dated Seamus and then Hannah – there was someone in between them I think – it was a few years ago. I was like 21, or something. It wasn’t very serious.”

“So you are not straight then?” Tonks said, bit curtly.

“What?” Cho said. “No, I’m not straight. I thought you knew that?”

Hermione noticed that Cho looked truly baffled, and a bit annoyed too. Tonks had a look on her face that she couldn’t interpret. 

“I guess you must all be in good terms, then? Even though you’re an ex to them both, I mean,” Lavender continued, intrigued.

“Yeah, we’re all friends – what was that?” Cho looked frightened.

They all stopped talking to listen to the horrible sound that seemed to come from inside the car’s engine.

“Something’s wrong,” Tonks said, twisting the switch that regulated the flying altitude. “We’re losing altitude.”

And just when Hermione thought the day couldn’t get worse, they went rushing through the air, falling, while Tonks did her best to get the car back in control. Cho grasped the edge of her seat knuckles white and Lavender screamed, “Do something! I’m going to be sick!”

Hermione took out her wand and yelled, “Arresto Momentum!”. The speed slowed down abruptly and then they were floating in the air, down, down, until they landed softly in the edge of a field. The soft landing was ruined by a long hissing sound when the tires of the car hit the ground.

They were all quiet for a moment, then Tonks said, “Either the ground gave out a very long sigh or we just lost a tyre.”

Lavender opened the door and threw up.

… 

Cho leaned against a stone fence and looked at a herd of sheep foraging in the field while Tonks and Hermione argued about how they should change the tyre. Lavender was sitting next to Cho, fixing her makeup after being sick. Cho wondered what were the chances of the flying mechanism of a hired flying car breaking down and then the same car landing straight on a rusty nail. Thank Merlin they had already crossed the sea when it happened.

“It makes more sense to use magic, we’ll get it done faster,” Cho heard Hermione say. “We’re already going to be late, now that we can’t fly anymore. One of us can use Leviosa to lift the car up and the other can change the tyre.”

“Leviosa is too fickle – the car will be floating in the air and it’s much more difficult when the car isn’t still,” Tonks said.

“I can do the lifting – I’m a master of Leviosa, and my wand hand is _very_ stable.”

“Maybe it is when you don’t have the Irish flu, but it sure isn’t today. Your wand hand is shaking as we speak.”

“It’s not! And my point stands – it takes ages if we use the jack to lift the car up.”

“I’m surprised you of all people are against the good old muggle way of changing the tyre. Have you ever even changed a tyre?”

“Well, no, but I’ve read a lot about them–”

“Cho!” Tonks turned to look at Cho over her shoulder and it startled Cho a bit hearing Tonks say her name. “You know about these things – could you help me change the tyre? Hermione isn’t feeling well.”

“Cho doesn’t know anything about cars! And I’m feeling _fine_ ,” Hermione said, furiously.

“That’s it. You and Lavender go see the ruins of that little church up on that hill and Cho and I change the tyre, okay? Get some fresh air. This won’t take long.”

Hermione looked morose but walked up to Lavender nevertheless and they both headed towards the church ruins.

Cho turned back to Tonks. “I know nothing about changing a tyre,” she said.

“I know,” Tonks grinned. “It’s okay, I’ll show you.”

…

Hermione glimpsed at Lavender from under her brows as they climbed up the hill. She still looked a bit frail after being sick but didn’t seem to mind walking. She had fixed her makeup perfectly too; the sun made the soft golden hues on her eyes and cheekbones glimmer beautifully on the bronze of her skin.

“I can’t believe we will be late,” Lavender said. “I have never been to a muggle wedding! And now I might miss the ceremony.”

“Muggle weddings are not that different,” Hermione shrugged. “More boring, if anything. Without all the magic.”

“Still, I wanted to see it.”

They stopped at the ruins, looking down where Tonks and Cho were changing the tyre. It was windy up on the hill – Hermione shivered a little in her sleeveless dress.

“We’re already in Northern Ireland. We might still make it there in time for the ceremony if Tonks is fast,” Hermione said. “Is that a fairy tree over there?” she added.

They turned to look at an old hawthorn tree that stood in the wind next to the ruins. There were objects hanging from the tree – pacifiers, socks, ribbons in different colours – and among the branches there were small creatures floating in the air, hiding behind the leaves, their wings glimmering in the sunlight.

“Oh, fairies!” said Lavender. “They’re so pretty!”

“I’ve read about these trees, but I’ve never actually seen one,” Hermione said, approaching the tree with interest. “They are very important part of the Irish muggle folklore, and they’re most common in Ireland and in Scotland. These trees used to be sacred to muggles in pre-Christian times and their status remained the same even after the conversion to Christianity. I imagine that is why the tree is standing next to these ruins – the church was probably built here, because this place was already important to muggles.”

“Why are there things hanging from the branches?” Lavender said, touching a pink pacifier, curious.

“Even though muggles can’t see the fairies, the belief in them still persists. Some muggles believe that if they leave little gifts to the fairies, the fairies will grant their wishes. That is, of course, a completely false assumption as are many assumptions muggles have about magical creatures – the intelligence of fairies is diminutive and their magic is weak. They don’t possess the ability to grant anyone anything.”

“It’s a nice idea, though,” Lavender said, smiling. “I wonder if there’s some truth to that.”

“Well, something being a nice idea doesn’t make it any more accurate,” Hermione said, letting out an annoyed sigh. She could swear that sometimes Lavender sounded just like Luna Lovegood.

…

Tonks stood in front of the car, her hands on her narrow hips, the sleeves of her white shirt rolled up to elbows. Her suit jacket was tossed aside onto the stone fence. Cho admired her lean, athletic back, her slim arms and how determined she looked, staring at the car she had just lifted up with the jack. Cho got the impression that Tonks felt in her element in unexpected situations like this – at least that's how excited she looked. That made Cho sort of wish that Tonks would’ve looked at her with the same kind of excitement.

“So,” she said, turning to Cho and flashing her a lopsided smile. “Let’s get to work. Do you have the tools?”

“They’re right here,” Cho said, opening the tool box that Tonks had given her from the trunk before lifting the car up.

“Okay then. Can you give me the lug wrench?”

“The what?”

Tonks grinned. Cho had a feeling Tonks was quite enjoying this whole situation.

“That one,” Tonks said, pointing a long, silver-coloured and L-shaped tool in the tool box.

“Oh that one! I thought you said, “Can you give me the log, wench?”, Cho said, as she picked the tool up and handed it to Tonks, who burst into laughter. Cho raised an eyebrow. If Tonks was playing a game with her, she could play along. “So now you think I’m funny?” she said. “It only took what, a flat tyre in the middle of nowhere for you to notice that?”

“What are you talking about?” Tonks looked at her confused, laughter subsiding.

“The Christmas party,” Cho said, feeling like it was completely obvious. “You said, ‘I’m surprised a girl like you has a good sense of humour’.”

“What? No, that’s not what I said at all. I said, ‘I see you have a good sense of humour after all’, that’s what I said.”

“And why did you think I wouldn’t have a good sense of humour? Because I’m pretty and popular? Because I’m younger than you?”

“No! That’s not what I thought. I mean, I meant it as a joke. Obviously it wasn’t a very good joke. But you said something funny and I tried to– I tried to flirt with you. I’m not very good at it, as you can see.”

“That was your attempt to flirt with me?”

“Well, yeah… I wish you would’ve told me I hurt your feelings. But I thought you couldn’t care less about me or about what I said. When I came back I saw you snogging with that Ravenclaw boy,” Tonks said, with a sigh. “I actually thought you weren’t into witches at all.”

“Well, I thought you tried to insult me,” Cho said. “And then Roger came and found me. I didn’t know you came back and saw it. I thought you went to look for your girlfriend – Mary was it? I remember wondering if she was your girlfriend, but then we started talking, and I thought, maybe she wasn’t. But then you suddenly started to talk about her and went to find her. So, I thought that there must’ve been something between the two of you.”

“Mary is an old friend and she was going through a rough time last winter. I just wanted to make sure she was ok. And,” Tonks looked a bit embarrassed. “I didn’t really know how to handle that situation with you. Because, you know,” Tonks spread her hands helplessly. “I’m really bad at interpreting people, and as you’ve seen, really bad at flirting. I had no idea what you thought about me. I mean, how you could’ve been interested in me – I’m awkward and clumsy and I tell awkward jokes and I’m too old for you – and you’re so–”

“Pretty and popular?” Cho smiled.

“–perfect,” Tonks ended, looking flushed.

“I’m not perfect,” Cho said, laughing at the absurdity of the statement. “I wake up annoyingly early every day and I’m too sensitive and moody and I get easily offended – Lavender says that’s because I’m a Cancer,” she smiled. Tonks laughed too. Cho was surprised that Tonks, who usually appeared so confident, was showing such vulnerability and uncertainty. But she thought that was quite sweet. She wanted to reach her hand out and touch Tonks, take Tonks’ hand in her own, show her that she cared and that she thought she was amazing, but she didn’t know how.

For a while they just stood there, close to each other, without touching or saying anything. Then Tonks turned to look at the car again and cleared her throat. “We should probably continue doing this, before we miss the entire wedding. I’ll show how you can help me here.”

…

 

Hermione was staring down at Cho and Tonks while Lavender played with the fairies.

“I don’t understand why Tonks didn’t let me change the tyre,” Hermione said. “I’m sure this whole thing wouldn’t have happened if I had been driving.”

“You always have to be right, don’t you?”

“It’s not about that! Just that, I hate that she thought I couldn’t do it – my wand hand is steady, isn’t it?”

“I know it was last night,” Lavender smirked.

Hermione felt heat rise on her cheeks. “Are you making fun of me?” she blurted.

“What? No! Hey,” Lavender said softly, “What I meant was, I really enjoyed it. Last night, I mean.”

Hermione looked at Lavender, confused. “What?”

“We had fun, didn’t we?”

“Yeah… I mean, I did, but I wasn’t sure about you. I was so drunk– I don’t think I was very good, you know? I felt like I made a fool of myself.”

“You were wonderful,” Lavender said, smiling. “And I think– I’d like to do that again sometime.”

“You would?” Hermione looked at Lavender, surprised. She was caught off guard, feeling baffled but also intrigued. What was Lavender proposing, exactly? Was she actually interested in her? Hermione felt a pleasant twist in her stomach, like someone had poured warm liquid inside her. She looked at Lavender standing in front of her, one hand on her curvy hips, looking majestic and somehow out of place in her glamorous dress and high heels here in the middle of ancient ruins and windy moors. It could never work between the two of them – they were simply too different. There was definitely something – this pull she felt towards her, even though Lavender annoyed the hell out of her sometimes. But Lavender Brown wasn’t exactly someone she could see herself in a relationship with.

“Wouldn’t you?” Lavender gave her a flirty smile.

“I don’t know. I mean, it was great and all, but we really don’t have much in common. I don’t think it would work between us.”

“Merlin, I wasn’t proposing marriage to you,” Lavender gave out a sigh. “Haven’t you ever like, just had casual sex with someone, no strings attached? Or went on a date with someone who wasn’t exactly your usual type, just to see where things would go?”

“Well, apart from last night, no,” Hermione said bluntly. “Why would I waste my time on something I know won’t work?”

“I see.” 

“I think we should head back. Tonks might need some help with the tyre. I know Cho can’t really do anything down there– what are you doing?” Hermione looked at Lavender who was taking out a piece of the golden strand she had entwined in her braids.

“I’m leaving a little gift to the fairies. I’m hoping they’ll grant my wish.”

“Lavender, that doesn’t actually work. It’s just a myth muggles believe in. Like I said, the fairies’ magic isn’t strong enough– ”

Lavender tied the golden strand on one of the branches and a couple of fairies flew closer to look at it, clapping their tiny hands with enthusiasm.

“See? They like it!” Lavender looked triumphant.

“They’re very vain; they like everything sparkly and beautiful.” Hermione gave out a frustrated sigh.

“Just because you don’t believe in something doesn’t mean it’s not real,” Lavender said. “Just because something is outside of your immediate, personal experience doesn’t mean it couldn’t work.”

“But according to research– ”

Lavender walked past Hermione, starting to walk down the path, back to their car. Hermione gave out another sigh and followed her lead.

…

Cho and Tonks were just finishing changing the tyre when Hermione and Lavender came back. Tonks had taught Cho how to remove lug nuts with a lug wrench and how to place them back onto the bolts when the spare tyre was installed. Cho was just tightening the rest of the nuts and Tonks was making sure they were secure enough.

“Can you put this back in the tool box?” Cho said, handing the wrench to Tonks. Their hands brushed briefly and Cho felt a pleasant shiver in her belly. Tonks eyes stopped on hers for a second, inscrutable and dark. Cho felt her heart skip a beat. Then she heard Hermione clear her throat behind her.

“It seems like everything’s ready here, so we should probably go,” Hermione said. “I think it’s better that I drive, because we can’t fly anymore, and I’m the only one of us who knows how to drive in muggle traffic.”

“That’s probably smart, if you feel like you’re in a condition to drive,” Cho said. “What are you doing, Lavender?”

Lavender was opening the car door, with an attempt to go sit on the back seat.

“I think it’s best if you take the front seat, like you did before, Lavender,” Cho said quickly. “We don’t want you to get car sick again.”

Lavender looked like she wanted to argue, but nevertheless let Cho gently push her towards the front seat. Cho saw Tonks looking at her again, a little smirk on her lips. Cho pretended to not notice, although she felt heat rising on her cheeks.

They all placed themselves in the car, Hermione and Lavender in the front, Cho and Tonks in the back. 

”So, how does it feel, now that you’re a mechanic?” Tonks said, turning to Cho.

Cho laughed. “I’m thinking of opening my own garage soon. Do you want to come work for me?”

“I’ll keep that offer in mind if I ever get bored of my work as an Auror,” Tonks said, grinning.

Lavender turned on her seat to look at Cho and Tonks with a suspicious look on her face.

“So what exactly is going on here?” she asked, eyeing them both.

“We are changing careers,” Cho said, face serious. “After Tonks’ thorough teaching, I’m now a master auto mechanic. I think I could even build a car. I might start building flying cars, now that they’re legal.”

“Tonks taught you, huh? I bet she has one or two other kind of things in her mind she’d love to teach you too,” Lavender said, smiling mischievously. 

Cho couldn’t even look at Tonks, but she was sure they both looked crimson red. Lavender smirked and settled back on her seat

“I think I’m going to take a nap now,” she said.

… 

They had been driving for an hour since leaving the spot where they had had the flat tyre. The traffic had been easy and Hermione was confident they wouldn’t miss much of the wedding ceremony if they kept going at steady pace. Tonks was making Cho laugh on the backseat by making herself look like people they knew. She was now transforming herself to look like Cho.

“Oh no, please stop!” Hermione heard Cho laugh. “Don’t do me! It’s too disturbing!”

Hermione couldn’t see what happened next, but she startled a little when she suddenly heard Dolores Umbridge’s voice from the backseat.

“Will you give me a kiss?” Tonks said in Umbridge’s voice, and smacked her lips disgustingly as she apparently leaned closer to Cho.

“Stop! Merlin, you’re insane!” Cho screamed laughing.

“You two should get a room,” Hermione said, but Tonks and Cho were laughing so hard in the backseat they didn’t hear her.

Lavender opened her eyes and yawned. “Are we there yet?” she asked.

“Still a little while to go,” Hermione said. “I think we’ll make it just in time though.” She glimpsed at Lavender and took notice that she looked quite cute, looking around disorientedly like that with sleepy eyes.

“I need more lipstick,” Lavender said, yawning again. She opened her purse and started to pull out all sorts of items, placing them on her lap. Hermione noticed that Lavender had used the same kind of Undetectable Extension Charm that Hermione often used to increase the interior of her small purse – otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to fit so many objects inside. Hermione was rather impressed – the charm was tricky to master.

“What’s that?” Hermione asked, glimpsing at the book Lavender had taken out of her purse.

“Keep your eyes on the road, Hermione, you don’t want your driving to be _chaotic_ , do you?” Tonks said, snarky. 

Hermione decided to ignore Tonks.

“Just some poetry I’m reading,” Lavender said, eyeing herself in the mirror while applying soft plum onto her lips. 

They were quiet for a moment. Hermione stared at the road ahead of her, pondering if Lavender had ever expressed interest in poetry during their Hogwarts years. Maybe she had and Hermione just hadn’t noticed. If she was honest, she had to admit that she hadn’t paid that much attention to Lavender at Hogwarts. 

“I didn’t know you read poetry. Which poet?”

“There are a lot of things you don’t know about me,” Lavender said, a bit sardonic. “Adrienne Rich.”

“Read me something.”

“Why?” 

“Just read me one you like. Please.”

Lavender rubbed her lips together, evening out the lipstick. She opened the book, flipped a few pages and stopped. “This one is my favorite. It’s called _Transcendental Etude_ ,” she said. “From the collection _Not somewhere else but here_ ”. She cleared her throat and read,

“Homesick for myself, for her – as, after the heatwave  
breaks, the clear tones of the world  
manifest: cloud, bough, wall, insect, the very soul of light:  
homesick as the fluted vault of desire  
articulates itself: I am the lover and the loved,  
home and wanderer, she who splits  
firewood and she who knocks, a stranger  
in the storm, two women, eye to eye  
measuring each other’s spirit, each other’s limitless desire,  
a whole new poetry beginning here.”

Lavender was a good reader, Hermione noticed. Her voice was soft but distinct and clear.

“What else do you read? Besides poetry, I mean.”

“I read a lot of old classics. Mostly female writers. Virginia Woolf, Jane Austen, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Audre Lorde…”

“The Bronte sisters?”

“Them too, but I think Austen is my favourite.”

Hermione looked at Lavender from the corner of her eye. She was flipping through her book, not looking at Hermione, but maybe it was just an act. Lavender’s words drifted back to Hermione’s mind – _I’d like to do that again sometime_ – and Hermione felt a new kind of thrill inside her, a strange surge of excitement. Hermione didn’t like to be wrong – and let’s face it, she almost never was – but now she couldn’t help but wonder if Lavender had had a point when she asked if Hermione ever dated people that weren’t her type. Because Hermione had a type – bookish, intelligent, dry sense of humour, neat – and she had a clear vision of what her type would look like and how they would act. For some reason, none of the relationship she had ever had with her type of people had been successful. Maybe she was, in fact, too narrow-minded – maybe she should give a chance to someone different? Someone who, perhaps, had gorgeous black curls, big, emotional eyes and a bright laughter.

…

Hermione’s prediction turned out right – when they finally curved onto the car park of the wedding venue, the ceremony was just about to start. Cho looked around – it was a lovely place, a big white stone house with a large, green garden area around it. The whole place was decorated beautifully and there was subdued music coming from the backyard.

“Oh, everything looks so beautiful!” Lavender sighed. “Oh, look at the fairy lights! Look at the pink ribbons! And there’s a fairy tree here too! Oh, it all looks so much like Hannah and Seamus! I’m sure they had a wonderful time decorating this place!”

“Come quickly now, so we don’t miss the bride and groom walking in,” Hermione said. “Let’s go find us seats!”

Hermione and Lavender both headed towards the backyard where the ceremony was going to be held. Tonks was about to follow Hermione, but Cho stopped her, grasping her wrist gently.

“Wait,” she said. “I just– I wanted to say something.”

“We might miss the bride and groom walking in,” Tonks pointed out, but she didn’t look too concerned about it.

“I know. I don’t care. Do you?”

“No, I have a feeling that whatever you’re going to say is more interesting. I hope you don’t prove me wrong,” Tonks said, with a lopsided smile.

Cho swallowed and gave out an awkward laugh. “Yeah, so. I just wanted to say, that you’re not awkward or clumsy any of those things you said – or I mean, maybe you are, but you’re also brave and funny and smart and you love Quidditch – that’s very important – and you’re entirely not too old for me. I think you’re pretty perfect, actually.”

Cho watched as a wide smile spread across Tonks’ face and then Tonks leaned closer, took Cho’s face onto her hands and pressed her lips onto Cho’s lips, giving her a long, deep kiss.

“That’s what I should’ve done last December,” she said, a bit breathless. “Instead of walking out and leaving you alone.”

“I’m glad you did it now,” Cho said, smiling. “Okay, now we can go see the ceremony!”

…

Whatever characteristics Cho and Tonks might’ve had, Hermione thought, at least they never went unnoticed. There was probably not a single person at the wedding who didn’t hear how Tonks accidentally pushed over the live band’s bass when she and Cho tried to quietly sneak into the ceremony area.

“Did you notice,” Lavender whispered, when a giggling Cho and a very embarrassed Tonks found seats in the last row, “that Cho and Tonks stayed behind on purpose.”

“I know,” Hermione whispered back. “You should’ve seen how they were in the backseat when you were asleep.”

“I wasn’t actually asleep. Well, I did sleep a little, but mostly I just kept my eyes closed. I just didn’t want to talk to you.”

“Why?”

“ _Why_? Because you were so incredibly rude to me at the fairy tree!”

“No I wasn’t! I was just being honest!”

“Here we go again,” Lavender said, rolling her eyes.

Hermione gave out a frustrated sigh. “Okay, maybe I wasn’t completely fair to you. I can be stubborn sometimes, and narrow-minded. Too narrow-minded. I think– I think this might be one of those times.”

“So are you admitting you were wrong?” Lavender squinted her eyes, looking suspicious, but smiling a little.

Hermione sighed again. “I guess I am. I mean – if you still want to – I’d like to do something with you. Like a date, maybe. Or sex. Or both.”

Lavender smiled. “Are you serious?”

Hermione smiled too. “I am. I think it’s time I try something new. Keep an open mind. And I mean, I like you. You’re very attractive, you know. And interesting. And you read, I like that too.”

“Well, I think you’re very attractive and interesting too,” Lavender said, smiling. “If you want, we could start that date right here and now?”

“I’d like that very much,” Hermione said. She felt Lavender take her hand on her own between their seats and give it a gentle squeeze. Hermione gave her a small, reassuring smile. Lavender’s hand was soft and warm. 

Then the wedding march started to play.


End file.
